Christopher Husberg's Blog, page 8

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theme: Epic-ized

I mean, does this really require an explanation?

Hope ya'll had a great weekend.

Alaska Grown

So this happened yesterday:



A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Anchorage, Alaska. I'm from Eagle River, AK, just outside of Anchorage, and things have been crazy. My parents and two younger brothers were all there when the earthquake happened, and it just sounds awful and insane.

In Alaska, you grow up relatively used to earthquakes. Tiny ones happen all the time, and on occasion (maybe once or twice a year, sometimes more frequently, sometimes less) you'll feel something in the 4.0-5.5 range. Right around 6.0 is when the quakes get kind of scary. I think I've experienced a 6+ once, maybe twice. I've never been in a 7, at least not that I can remember, and I can't imagine how terrifying it would have been.

And there have been hundreds of aftershocks--smaller earthquakes after the big one, anywhere from 3-5 on the scale. I know a lot of people who had trouble sleeping last night because the aftershocks were so frequent and relatively powerful.

So, anyway, it's a crazy time. The next few days, weeks, and months will constitute a lot of cleaning up and assessing damage for pretty much everyone I know up there. I imagine there will be a shortage of dishes, bookshelves, and plumbing services for a while. Thankfully, at least, most areas have power again--it's been hovering right around 32 degrees, and that's relatively warm for this time of year.

The following photos taken by my Dad, Brad Husberg, and show just a snippet of the damage:

Structural damage to my parents' house.
My Dad's office--thankfully he avoided getting crushed by these huge bookshelves.
My family's kitchen.
I mean...
Local grocery store.Basically, it's a huge mess for a lot of folks up there, and my family didn't even get the worst of it. A part of me is glad I wasn't up there to experience it, and another part of me wants to get up there asap and help out with the cleanup.

All of me, however, is proud to be an Alaskan. They're some of the toughest, most practical, independent people I know, and they're all bad-ass and awesome. I'm proud of my family and friends, I'm so happy that everyone I've heard from is safe, and I'm sending them love and hope the best for them.

And, in the tiniest token of solidarity, I'm wearing one of my favorite sweatshirts today.



Alaska Grown

Sales Cover for FEAR THE STARS

Been discussing the cover for book four with my publisher lately, and they sent me this yesterday. I'm quite happy with it. This continues the aesthetic of the series (an aesthetic I'm definitely here for, by the way; I've loved each of the covers so far, and this one is no exception), the yellow/gold really pops, and I can't say I mind the Brandon Sanderson quote either--I'm grateful he was kind enough to take the time to read my books and say some nice things about them.

So another phenomenal sales cover, one that will represent a (hopefully) phenomenal book. I can't wait to get it into everyone's hands!

For now, you can pre-order it here.

RIP MoviePass

This is old news for me, but I wanted to say that I cancelled my MoviePass back in September. It was a bittersweet day: bitter because at one point in time MoviePass had been such a delightful, awesome product for me, and it no longer was that delightful, awesome product; and sweet, because dealing with the MoviePass company, app, and CEO had become increasingly difficult and annoying, and the idea of just dropping it sounded wonderful.

So I did. (And, fortunately, had no trouble cancelling my subscription, as many other people reported.)

For the most part, I'm happy about that decision. I certainly miss seeing so many movies, but because of the new (and constantly changing and unclear) rules of MoviePass--and the fact that I've been finishing books, having babies (erm, have I not mentioned that yet? It's a thing. I'll tell you more about it later.), etc.--I wouldn't have seen that many movies, at least through MoviePass, recently anyway.

If you're unfamiliar with some of the craziness surrounding MoviePass, check out this timeline.

And, while I'm sure the video below is not literally accurate, it certainly captures the emotional essence of the MoviePass struggle.

Sigh. Sweet MoviePass, you were fun while you lasted. And while you were sane.

2018 Whitney Award Nomination

Some good news: Blood Requiem was recently nominated for a Whitney Award!

It always makes me happy to hear one of my books is up for an award, and this is no exception. Also, because this award is given by a committee, there's no need for me to campaign for it, which sounds rather relaxing tbh. I can just sit back and cross my fingers.

In other news, I'm making some significant progress on prewriting for my next project. I won't say too much about it right now, but I should be able to move into writing the first draft very soon. My goal is to finish at least a draft of the first book in the new trilogy by early next year. Right now that's certainly looking possible, and another reason to cross my fingers!

BLOOD REQUIEM Part 1 Now Available on Graphic Audio

Part 1 of Graphic Audio's adaptation of Blood Requiem is out today!
I'm very pleased with Graphic Audio's adaptations of my books. Their cast and crew do a wonderful job, producing high quality audio stuff with a full cast, soundtrack, and sound effects. It's a very different experience from a regular audiobook, but one I highly recommend. Check it out! Follow the link above to listen to an audio sample if you're not yet convinced.
AND it looks like they're running an early Black Friday deal--it's plastered across the top of their website, but you can get 25% off by entering the code!
And, of course, check out their adaptations of the previous books in the Chaos Queen Quintet:
Duskfall
Dark Immolation Part 1
Dark Immolation Part 2

The Dawn of Artificial Superintelligence (YouTube series)

As I've mentioned earlier this year, one of my big research topics lately--as I gear up to start writing a brand new trilogy--has been Artificial Superintelligence. I've been reading books, following AI research institutions, watching documentaries, and generally absorbing anything on the topic I can.

A few months ago I came across this YouTube series, which explains the topic pretty well--and relatively concisely. Check it out if you're interested in a crash course on ASI. There is supposedly a fourth part in the pipeline, and I'll post that here as well as soon as it pops up.

Also, as far as my brand new trilogy goes, I'm almost done with the pre-writing and should be moving on to start the first novel in the trilogy just in time for a slightly belated NaNoWriMo. So, that's exciting :-).

A lot of other things have been going on for me in the past month or so, which I will likely post about in the future, but for now, life is good, and I'm excited about my next project.

World Fantasy 2018

Hey folks! It's been a busy October--more on that later, perhaps--but I'm actually at an airport right now waiting for my flight to Baltimore, MD for the 2018 World Fantasy Convention. I'll be participating formally in two panel items, both on Friday:

Noon (Maryland Ballroom): Mary Shelley, Genius
In which, I assume, the fellow panelists and I will discuss the greatness that is Mary Shelley! Easy peasy, that.

8-10PM(ish) (Maryland Ballroom): Mass Autograph Reception/Signing Thingy
In which I join dozens (hundreds?) of other authors as we all gather to sign books and have conversations with fans and any random passerby who dares pass by, so to speak.

Otherwise I'll be writing in various places (working on a new project), hovering around the bar, and generally hanging out for the weekend. If you'll be there, come converse with me!

2 Mello, "Magic Ruins Everything Around Me," and "Masamune Problems"

Just a friendly reminder that 2 Mello exists and he once mashed up the FFVI soundtrack with a Wu-Tang Clan album. My favorite track below.
Also, he's mixed the Chrono Trigger soundtrack with some Jay-Z lyrics, and that is awesome as well. My favorite track from that is "Masamune Problems" if you want to give it a listen.
There's cool stuff in this world!
Final Fantasy - The 3-6 Chambers by 2 Mello

FEAR THE STARS

A screenshot, as void of spoilers as possible, of my Scrivener file for Fear the Stars. You will notice, however, the section titles and the interlude title, if that interests you. And, if you're in a really speculative mood, you can try to guess which colors represent which POV characters in my color-coded binder to the left ;-).Yesterday I finished book Four of the Chaos Queen Quintet, Fear the Stars, and turned it in to my editor.

*Cue gargantuan sigh of relief*

My main goal was to finish this book before our second daughter was born. Well, she hasn't arrived yet, and is due in mid-October, so I'm on track there, at least! (Most of the above sigh of relief comes from the fact that I can now take some time off when the baby is born to spend time with new baby, little B, and Rachel with a clear conscience and nothing burning a hole in my plate, as it were.) That said, this book took longer than I'd anticipated, and I did have to extend my deadline by about a month (typically my Chaos Queen books are due in August the year prior to their release). Fortunately my publisher and editor were very understanding, and graciously gave me that leeway.*

This book was a blast to write, and for a few reasons. One, while many of the characters have been spread out geographically over the past few books, almost all of them converge into more or less the same space in Fear the Stars, and it's been a lot of fun to write those interactions. Also, I got to write two major sequences that I've been looking forward to writing since Duskfall--in the case of one of the sequences, since long before Duskfall. These two scenes, in part, inspired the Chaos Queen Quintet itself, and it was a really gratifying, cathartic experience to finally actually write them.

Also...this is a really good book, I think. Probably the best one yet. Which makes sense, because I hope I'm getting better with each book I write, but still. I think this will be a really good one.

I always like to provide a few details when finishing a book, partially for transparency's sake but mostly I just find the info and stats interesting. Admittedly I haven't been super consistent with which draft I've provided this information for--for Duskfall it was the very first finished draft of the book, for Dark Immolation it was a revised draft, for Blood Requiem the very first finished draft again, and now for Fear the Stars it's back to another revised draft. Part the reason behind this inconsistency lies in the fact that my first drafts are usually...very rough. I often skip a few scenes while writing that first draft, knowing I'll add them in with the first revision; the ending is sometimes barely more than a skeleton of what it will eventually become; characters are added and deleted; etc. So in most cases, I don't feel the very first draft I finish even represents a full book (although the first drafts of Duskfall and Blood Requiem, at least, were much closer than those of Dark Immolation and Fear the Stars!).

Anyway, all that is to say: on to the details for Fear the Stars!

Title: Fear the Stars. I'll be honest, the titles of the middle three books of the Chaos Queen Quintet are perhaps just a little more abstract than I'd like my titles to be, mainly for accessibility (re: marketing). I mean, who am I kidding, Duskfall and Dawnrise, the titles of books 1 and 5 are a little abstract as well, but at least they have some symmetry. So I guess the abstruse titles are sort of a theme in and of themselves, now? Basically: in retrospect I don't think the Chaos Queen titles, especially the middle three titles, do a lot for the books from a marketing perspective. That said, I like them, and I suppose that counts for something, yeah?Version: 2.2 - I kind of covered this a few paragraphs ago, but this means it's a revised version of the book. 2.0 denotes a full revision, and any ticks in that first decimal place indicate minor changes made after or in supplement to that full revision. I will say, however, that I am very happy with this version of the book. I haven't been this pleased with a draft I've placed in my editor's hands since Duskfall; while I am very happy with the published versions of books two and three, the versions I first handed in to my editor still had some significant work to be done on them. I think this one will probably go through some changes as well, but it is very solid.Total Word Count:187,625. That's a lot, and technically the longest draft I've ever turned in to my editor (Duskfall was at 162,000, Dark Immolation at 177,200, and Blood Requiem at a measly 131,600. There's actually funny story about the lengths of the final versions of those books, but this post is already getting long so I'll save it for another time). But a lot is happening in this book, so I think it'll probably end up being the largest of the Quintet, unless something really surprises me in book 5.Chapters: 48, not including an Epilogue and an Interlude. (So 50 total, I guess.)Viewpoint Characters: Yikes...we're at 10, cont 'em, ten viewpoint characters now, not including 2-3 minor viewpoints that recur throughout the book. That's a lot, but then again I'm also on book 4 of a 5-book dark fantasy epic, so it makes sense.Start Date: Sometime in November or December of last year, I think? I really need to remember to mark the date I actually START novels.End Date: 2 October 2018. Fugging nailed it, ya'll.So, Fear the Stars. It's gonna be big, ya'll.



* On a side note, I think in part I'm granted that leeway because, when I have gone over deadline, I've tried to anticipate it, alert my editor beforehand, and then give them a solid date for a new deadline and stick to it, which so far has never been more than 6-8 weeks out from the original deadline. The more professional thing, of course, would be to stick to the deadlines in the first place, and typically I try to do that, but on occasion life does get in the way, and I consider this way of going about extending a deadline much more professional than just watching the deadline pass me by, putting the onus on my editor to follow up and bug me about it, and then  either letting the same thing happen with the next deadline, or not giving them a projected new deadline at all.